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iced tea

iced tea

65 1.0
A cold drink of tea served with ice and sometimes sugar or lemon
  • noun
  • /aɪst ti/
translation icon : té helado
  • On a warm afternoon, nothing beats a tall glass of iced tea filled with ice.
  • drink iced tea
  • glass of iced tea
  • cup of iced tea

Who put iced tea in my liquor flask?

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Examples

  • "Yes, let me get you some iced tea," her father announced.

    Fiction book (1990)
  • I'll have an iced tea.

  • Would you like an iced tea?" He looked over at her.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • I'll have a Long Island iced tea.

  • I'd like a Long Island iced tea, please.

  • "And I have to sit here quietly," my mother said, "and drink my iced tea."

    Fiction book (1997)
  • Harry comes out on the porch with a pitcher of iced tea in his hands.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • At home, I sit on the porch swing and drink iced tea from a mason jar.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • Francesca sits on the front porch with some iced tea, trying to cool herself off.

    Fiction book (1995)
  • Hannah has a half-eaten salad and a half-drunk glass of iced tea on the table in front of her.

    Fiction book (1990)

Synonyms

tea
vsiced tea
937 1.0

A hot or cold drink made by putting dried leaves in water

is specifically a chilled drink served with ice not any temperature
ice tea
vsiced tea
  • US
20 1.3

A cold drink of tea poured over ice, often with lemon or sugar

is identical in meaning but differs in spelling or variant form
sun tea
vsiced tea
  • US
1 4.8

Tea left in sunlight to steep and served cold with ice

is brewed rather than steeped slowly in sunlight

How Cold

iced tea
65 1.0
tea
937 1.0
hot coffee
19 1.0

Surface Forms

iced tea singular
iced teas plural

Morphology

iced + tea

The meaning 'a cold drink made from tea served with ice' is directly derivable from combining 'iced' (made/served with ice) and 'tea'. The adjectival '-ed' formation and the adjective + noun pattern are common and have clear cross-linguistic parallels, so a B1 learner who knows 'ice' and 'tea' would readily understand this phrase.

Etymology

Iced tea comes from a simple picture: you make hot tea and then add ice, so the tea becomes iced. So the name shows the drink is 'tea' served cold with ice.